Hitachi Develops Machine to Recycle Rare Earths

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Hitachi develops machine to recycle rare earths to cut reliance on China
Hitachi Ltd. said it developed machinery to harvest rare earth metals from discarded hard- disk drives and compressors as electronics makers seek to reduce their reliance on Chinese supply. The machine can extract 100 rare earth magnets from hard disk drives per hour, about eight times faster than manual labor, Tokyo-based Hitachi said in a statement today. The company plans to get 10 percent of its rare-earth needs through recycling when the business begins operating in fiscal 2013, according to spokeswoman Satoko Yasunaga.